First-time visitors to Atlanta, the unofficial capital of American soccer, have more of an excuse for losing their bearings than they do in most major cities.
The main drag in this alluring southern city is Peachtree Street. Peachtree Street slices through downtown and a long way beyond, and gives rise to many mutations bearing the Peachtree name. Peachtree Street suddenly (not to mention inexplicably) becomes Peachtree Road as it snakes north towards Atlanta’s ritzy, upscale suburb of Buckhead (the “Rodeo Drive of the South”). Then there’s Peachtree Parkway, Peachtree Battle Avenue, New Peachtree Road, Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Dunwoody. And so on. Apparently some 71 different thoroughfares in the metro Atlanta area include the word “Peachtree”. Though who’s counting?
Deciduous fruit tree references apart, Atlanta also has surprisingly prominent South African links. Starting with soccer. It’s the city where a slick-footed, starry-eyed young Sowetan footballer by the name of Kaizer Motaung spent seven years between 1968 and 1975. Motaung played for Atlanta Chiefs in the old North American Soccer League (NASL), and absorbed many lessons on how to run a professional outfit both on and off the field. He returned home determined to create his own team. The name and logo of this new team leaned heavily on their owner’s Atlanta experiences, which is how Atlanta sort of spawned a South African footballing dynasty: Kaizer Chiefs.
Still with soccer, Atlanta will be the only US city to host South Africa in the upcoming Fifa World Cup. Unless Hugo Broos’ side create a slice of history and surge into the knockout stage — Bafana’s first group game is, of course, a repeat of the 2010 tournament opener against Mexico, this time at the fabled Azteca in Mexico City instead of the Calabash. Their final group game is also in Mexico.
Sandwiched in between is a clash against Czechia on June 18 at Atlanta’s truly jaw-dropping Mercedes-Benz Stadium (MBS). The venue is a sensational piece of sporting architecture — a sleek, 75,000-capacity behemoth with a unique roof-opening mechanism that resembles a camera-lens aperture. The stadium is one of many assets owned by AMBSE, a sports and entertainment conglomerate started by Home Depot co-founder Arthur M Blank, who is a sports-loving, philanthropic son of Atlanta with pockets as deep as Ray Charles’ voice.
Blank owns the Atlanta Falcons NFL (National Football League) gridiron team and Atlanta United of Major League Soccer (MLS) too. He always has Georgia on his mind, having just shelled out north of $50m to help carve out from scratch an 80ha, state-of-the-art training facility and headquarters for US Soccer in the woods half an hour south of Atlanta.
There’s a fair few contenders, but the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is arguably the crown jewel in the Blank portfolio. Since opening in 2017, the MBS has hosted concerts featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z and sporting events such as Super Bowl LIII (2019), Copa América (2024) and the Fifa Club World Cup (2025). Besides Bafana’s group game, the stadium will host seven other World Cup games, including a semifinal.
SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY
Mzansi’s Atlanta connections continued when the city hosted the 1996 Olympic Games. It was here that the new South African flag was flown at the Olympics for the first time after the country’s return from sporting isolation (SA competed under an interim Olympic flag in Barcelona four years earlier). Iconic memories from those games include the straight-out-of-left-field men’s marathon win by Josia Thugwane and the ever-smiling Penny Heyns’ double gold in the swimming pool.
Atlanta is proud to be welcoming the world, just as it did 30 years ago. Dan Corso, president of the Atlanta World Cup Host Committee, reckons that half a billion dollars will be pumped into the city during the tournament.
Corso and his team intend to go out of their way to make international fans feel welcome. Especially in the wake of the Trump administration’s clampdown on visa processing for some 75 nations. Teams from three of those 75 countries — Cape Verde, Haiti and Uzbekistan — will play in Atlanta during the World Cup, without much support from abroad. Even as calls to boycott the tournament have risen in a few quarters, Corso stresses that he is confident Atlanta will provide an “inclusive and memorable World Cup experience” for all fans making the journey.
I believe him. Atlanta has always been a progressive, diverse and welcoming city — the epitome of old-school southern hospitality.
It is also celebrated as the cradle of the American Civil Rights Movement, and its heritage has parallels with South Africa’s own liberation struggle. The city’s most famous son is, of course, Martin Luther King Jr, the charismatic preacher who had a dream that inspired a nation.
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King was born in Atlanta and his birthplace on Auburn Avenue remains a much-visited shrine, as does his (and his wife Coretta’s) resting place just a block further down the street. In nearby Centennial Park, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights has just undergone a $56m facelift in time for the World Cup. It should be high on the to-do list.
OLYMPIC ECHOES
Centennial Park was built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and will host the city’s official Fifa Fan Festival. It’s a wonderful downtown green space, though with a dark memory of its own. Just a few days into the games, a security guard named Richard Jewell spotted a suspicious-looking knapsack abandoned among the partying fans and alerted police. The knapsack contained a pipe bomb, which duly detonated, killing one and injuring 112. Jewell then became the prime suspect and for weeks was the subject of an international media frenzy.
He was ultimately exonerated (the device had been planted by an anti-abortion activist) and made a lot of money suing multiple media outlets. His story became the subject of a Hollywood movie — Richard Jewell, directed by Clint Eastwood — in 2019.
Green spaces abound in Atlanta. Once an abandoned freight railroad, the Atlanta Beltline is now a 35km loop that’s a vibrant network of trails, parks, outdoor art exhibitions, trendy bars and restaurants. It’s a bit like a ground-level version of New York’s High Line, only bigger and better. Walkers, joggers, cyclists and skateboarders barrel past at all hours of the day and night. During the pandemic, the Beltline became a lifeline for many residents, one of the few places where they could move, connect and breathe freely. City planners come from around the world to walk the Beltline, seeking lessons on how to reimagine and rebuild cities around people. As opposed to cars.
Speaking of cars, traffic in Atlanta can be notoriously snarled, so why not hail a driverless car to get you from Peachtree to Peachtree in a novel fashion? Atlanta was among the first American cities to offer Waymo and now has a fleet of 100 prowling the streets. You won’t have to wait long before one of these futuristic, vaguely sinister white vehicles purrs by — lights flashing, rooftop Lidar sensor whirring, incongruously empty while en route to the next customer.
More prosaic transport options include the Marta underground, with its ubiquitous whiff of weed in every station. Marta is receiving an upgrade ahead of the World Cup, and recently launched a new tap-to-pay system, with contactless bank cards and phones now accepted alongside new transit cards.
Atlanta may be laid-back and hospitable, but it’s also a cutting-edge city that is home to some of the world’s biggest corporations.
It is the global headquarters of CNN. And back in May 1886, a chemist named Dr John S Pemberton finally perfected the syrup-and-carbonated-water tonic, whose formula he had been tinkering with for years. He tried it out at his local chemist, Jacobs’ Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, where it proved a smash hit at 5c a glass. Thus was Coca-Cola born.
The World of Coca-Cola in Centennial Park is a vast shrine to the throat-tickling beverage. More than 100 worldwide iterations of Coke are on tap to quaff for free, and to incubate burps of gargantuan proportions.
Atlanta is also home to Delta Air Lines, and the city’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has been the busiest in the world for most of the past decade, perhaps because 80% of Americans live within a two-hour flight radius. There’s a direct Delta connection between OR Tambo and Atlanta. Airborne for 15 hours, with wifi available throughout, so that the office can now also bother you at 41,000 feet.
Atlanta is a food mecca too. With every possible desire and whim catered for. If you have no beef with steak then I urge you to sample Kevin Rathbun’s along the Beltline, a perennial contender for America’s best steakhouse. A massive framed picture of the owner/chef looms over you in the dining room while you fork home a mouthful of $155 (about R2,600) Wagyu Chatel Farms Ribeye. Bring your big-boy wallet.
Far less taxing on the pocket is Little Five Points, a gritty-chic area east of downtown reached via Marta’s Inman Park station. Chug beer at the Brewhouse pub, which is rated the best bar in America to watch soccer. It’s festooned with club scarves from around the world, and there’s a shrine to rugby too. Nearby is the unmissable grinning zombie-skull entrance to The Vortex, one of the city’s favourite dive bars cum burger joints. Sink a few Laughing Skull Amber Ales here and then catch some comedy at the Laughing Skull Lounge next door.
There’s something for everyone in Atlanta. And the Fifa World Cup is set to be a party to rival the Olympian heights of three decades ago.
Just ensure you double-check that Peachtree destination of yours with Siri.
• The Fifa World Cup runs from June 11 - July 19.
• Davies was a guest of AMB Sports and Entertainment.
